Posted 4 years ago on July 14, 2013, 11:14 a.m. EST by stnewyork
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So the verdict is out but New York City is silent right now. Why aren't we taking to the streets in NYC? We need to be out on the streets pushing for the end of all racial profiling across this country. If Zimmerman had not racially profiled Trayvon, Trayvon would be alive today! NYC maintains its stop and frisk laws that disproportionately affect black and brown people. These policies say that just being black itself is a crime/is a threat. Occupy Wall Street needs to lead the charge!

Read "The Collapse of American Criminal Justice" (Harvard) by the late Harvard Law Professor William J. Stuntz. (ISBN 9780674051751, Publication: September 2011)

Stuntz's book demonstrates why the justice system fails to work for poor folk, and particularly black Americans.

And when you disproportionately incarcerate black people -- who tend to vote for Democrats -- you rig the elections against poor folk and Democrats. Its a downward spiral.

Fix the justice system -- some 95% of people in prison don't even get a trial by jury, let alone a jury of their peers -- because the prosecutor holds nearly all the cards, and they can coerce the defendant to plead guilty. Prosecutor scores another notch on his score card, prosecutor avoids hassle of going to trial. Often innocent plead to lesser charge to avoid risk of longer sentences.

I think the reason not many people are protesting is most people see it as a just verdict.

From purely a technical standpoint the case wasn't proven. If you watched much of the trial you'd have seen the prosecution was a disaster. It was so bad at times it looked like they were working for the defense.

When you consider all the facts this was clearly a self defense shooting. Most people understand that..

I read the article. It's just whining. Stand-your-ground simply means you aren't legally obligated to retreat when threatened. That's it, nothing more. In States without stand-your-ground you are obligated to retreat or otherwise extract yourself from a threat. If you can't safely get away then you can use deadly force to protect yourself.